The Virginity Hit

Everyone keeps trying to compare this film to the Judd Apatow-era teen comedies, or the "American Pie" franchise. Thus, they are going into this with the wrong set of expectations. This isn't *that* kind of comedy. It has a lot more heart,for one thing, and it plays by a different set of rules. Apatow & Co., and "American Pie" come from the perspective of my generation (Gen X) projected on the current generation (Gen Y? The Millenials? Whatever we're calling them). This film comes more from the sensibilities of the current generation: sharing *everything* online, no such thing as TMI, no sense of privacy.

I tried to consider comparisons to other films. It reminded me a little, in spirit, of the recent little sleeper "Bart Got A Room." I also tried to approach it from the perspective of "'Porkys' made by kids who weren't born when the original was made." All of those fell short. Ultimately, it's its own film. Just like the kids it's about, it has a different set of boundaries and priorities; but underneath, the humanity is the same.

The Virginity Hit plays like it's real when it's really 100% a work of fiction. It's supposed to play like a home movie made by teenagers trying to get their best friend to have sex for the first time. The film was one of the very underrated comedies of 2010 while the trailer was released very mainstream. I saw the trailer on Youtube and was rather curious how the film would turn out. I never saw it in my local theaters listing.

It wasn't until I went on Facebook, and saw a friend of mine went to a Midnight showing downtown to go see it and after a quick Google search I was able to find out it was released very limited. The film is better than a movie like Grown Ups, but it still uses the tiresome, drab virgin formula. I don't know what it is, but for some reason, comedies that come out now are all about someone trying to lose his virginity.

Even though most things now aren't the freshest meat on the market, they do have some fun moments in them. The Virginity Hit is about teenagers Matt, Zack, Jacob, and Justin. All the friends take a hit off a bong when they lose their virginity, and Matt is the only one of the four that hasn't had sex yet. Zack, Jacob, and Justin go through the trouble to film Matt's adventure with trying to get lucky with his girlfriend Nicole.

The jokes are hit or miss, very few scenes are memorable, but The Virginity Hit is a good sport and does squeeze in some laughs here and there. Matt Bennett (Matt) is part of Nickelodeon's ho-hum series Victorious, and he's the one character in the film I really found myself liking from beginning to end.

The Virginity Hit doesn't score big, but it has about the same level of humor as The Other Guys which was also produced by Adam McKay and Will Ferrell. While neither McKay or Ferrell appear in the film, good or bad, the movie has a bit of the Old School movie feeling, but it still doesn't match the humor in that film. But it's still a nice late night comedy that isn't extremely awful.

I'll put it this way, I wish it would've had a wider release.

Starring: Matt Bennett, Zack Pearlman, Jacob Davich, and Justin Kline. Directed by: Huck Botko and Andrew Gurland.

After making a pact to lose his virginity Matt sets up a motel room and everything is ready. Zack is there to film the whole thing, then something goes wrong. This is a "mock-umentery", which uses a lot of "youtube" videos to tell some of the story. This is a totally made up movie but shot like a documentary to get the right feel they want. There was a definite "American Pie" & "Superbad" feel in some of the jokes and the way the characters act, but it's missing a quality these two had...humor. Some parts are really funny, but there are also extremely depressing things thrown in right as the movie gets rolling which grinds it to a halt and takes a while to feel like laughing again. It's not terrible but I was expecting something laugh-out-loud funny and this was not it. I think that some of the problem is that I may have outgrown this type of movie (20-somethings looking to lose their virginity), or it could just be that this one isn't funny. You be the judge. I give it a C-.

Like most movies under the Ferrell/McKay brand, this one is immature, dumb, and worst of all boring. I saw it last night in Union Square in NYC, and even the usually forgiving audience there was silent through most of the movie. With the rare exception of a couple well-placed scatological jokes, there really isn't much to write home about. The archetypes from the famous teenage comedies are all there, but the film seem to borrow especially heavily from Superbad. It's shot in a Cloverfield-meets-road trip movie style, with the two main characters stuck in a Jonah Hill / Michael Cera roles, which is strange because there isn't one name actor in the bunch. It's surprising that they're pushing this for wide release, as the $2 million budget seems better suited for art houses. In all honesty, you could do a lot worse than this movie. But with 1.5 hours you could also do a lot better.

The teenage son of a wealthy New Orleans couple endeavors to lose his virginity. This young man is Matt Bennett (as Matt), the last of his group of friends to get lucky. Offering the most help in his quest for sex is Matt's brother Zack Pearlman (as Zack). At one point, Matt receives a pair of his favorite pornographic star's panties for a birthday present. She also appears in the flesh. But, don't get your hopes or anything else up for this limp, sexless story. It could best be described as a home movie. If you are on the screen, or know one of the performers, it might be nice to have a copy. Otherwise, it's is a waste of time. By the way, "The Virginity Hit" title refers to the friends' pact to only smoke weed after one of them loses his virginity - these guys are clearly not thinking ahead.

* The Virginity Hit (9/10/10) Andrew Gurland, Huck Botko ~ Matt Bennett, Zach Pearlman, Jacob Davich, Justin Kline